A blog for members of Westbury Baptist Church, people who want to know more about our ministry, or people who just want to chat.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Holy Fear

He was
the richest man in the world, and was also the most brilliant man who had ever
lived.Combine that with absolute
political and military power, and you have a man who was literally living the
dream of every human, and especially every male, on earth.So what do you get the man who has
everything?Well, this particular man
wanted happiness, fulfillment, a sense of purpose.He wanted his life to count.So he used his riches and power to woo
beautiful, desirable women.He could
have literally any woman he wanted, and took full advantage of that fact.He embarked on huge building projects.He designed cities and conscripted workers to
build these majestic monuments to his greatness.He enjoyed the best food, wine and
entertainment money could buy.He
pursued greater knowledge in every field of learning available at that time,
and then made himself famous.People
came from other nations to listen to his wisdom and knowledge, and they
showered him with gifts, making him even richer than before.Then he reached that point in life when he
began to assess things.He decided to
write a memoir, something that would offer the lessons of his life to future
generations. That memoir is what we call the book of Ecclesiastes.It’s the diary of an old man who regrets most
of his life.It is unique among all the
books of the Bible, because it focuses primarily on what NOT to do.Ecclesiastes was written by a man who calls
himself The Teacher (Qoheleth in Hebrew), but it’s obvious from the way he
describes himself that this is Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.Nothing brought him the happiness and
fulfillment he sought, not sex, achievements, power, pleasure, riches, fame or
knowledge.But note how Solomon ends his
depressing diary:

Now
all has been concluded, here is the end of the matter: Fear God and keep His
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Let’s put this another way: Imagine
you had lunch with a man who has the power of a president, the lifestyle of a
rock star, the riches of Warren Buffet, the knowledge of Stephen Hawking.He’s done everything there is to do, owned
everything there is to own, and learned everything there is to learn.And you say to him, “What can I do to live
the best life possible?”He says, “Fear
God.”Then he hands you a Bible.You open it to find that he has highlighted
over 300 references to the fear of God.As you read, you find that, according to Scripture, a person who fears
God lives a life full of delight, joy and increasing knowledge.He becomes the person he was created to be,
and steers clear of the self-destructive choices that others make. He
influences the people around him as well as the generations who come along after
him, for good.In other words, the person
who fears the Lord truly lives a life worth living.But you’re still confused.You say, “Fear God?What does that even mean?I believe in God, but how do I know if I
truly fear Him?And if I don’t, how I
can learn to fear Him as I should?”We’ve
been talking since the first Sunday of the year about the holiness of God.
Scripture makes it clear that the only proper way to relate to a God this holy
is in holy fear.But we don’t tend to
talk about that in churches these days.So this Sunday I want to answer those three questions I asked earlier: What is
the fear of God?How do I know when I
have it?And what can I do to get it?